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AMAZON. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1888. 



AMAZON. 






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PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1888. 



Copyright, 1888, by J. B. Lippincott Company. 



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AMAZON. 



Amazon, or Amazons (Portuguese Amazonas), a 
river of South America, and the largest stream on the 
face of the globe. It is known locally by other names, 
such as Maranon, Orellana, Solimoens, Parana-tinga, and 
Parana-uassu. According to geographical usage, the 
name Maranon belongs properly to the more northern 
of its two main head-streams, rising in Lake Lauricocha 
(Peru) about 10° 30' S. lat., 76° 10' W. long. Most 
geographers consider this stream (frequently called the 
Tunguragua) as the true Amazon ; but some late writers 
insist that the river Apurimac, or Ucayale (the more 
southern of the two great head-streams), is the true 
Amazon. The Ucayale is some 320 miles longer than 
the Tunguragua. It is commonly said that the river 
Amazon, to its remotest source, is nearly 4000 miles 
long; but Mr H. H. Smith asserts that at the very 
longest the measurement will not much exceed 3000 
miles. The Upper Maranon is the only stream that 
breaks through the central Cordillera of Peru ; but five 
other streams, all tributaries of the Ucayale, cut through 
the magnificent eastern chain of the Andes, as also does 
the Maranon itself. Most of the upper branches flow in 
deep mountain gorges, which, though much elevated, 
have a hot climate. East of the Cordillera the vast 
forest-plain is entered, which stretches from the sub- 
Andean foot-hills to the sea. It is a region rich in 



4 AMAZON. 

botanical treasures, having a fertile soil and a prodigi- 
ously large rainfall. Owing to this rainfall, the country 
is traversed by a very great number of large navigable 
rivers, either direct or indirect affluents of the Amazon, 
and many of them scarcely known even by name to the 
geographer. Steam navigation has been introduced on 
many of the larger branches ; but the natural resources 
of the country are very little developed. 

The principal tributaries from the north are the Napo, 
the Putumayo, the Japura, and the Rio Negro; from 
the south the Javary, the Jutahy, the Jurua, the Purus 
(with its great affluent the Aguiry), the Madeira (itself 
the recipient of mighty rivers, such as the Beni and the 
Mamore), the Tapajos, the Xingu, and the Tocantins, 
which receives the waters of the Araguay. For a con- 
siderable distance the main river forms the boundary 
between Peru and Ecuador ; but its course lies chiefly 
through the northern half of Brazil, its general direc- 
tion being to the NNE. Its mouth is crossed by the 
equator. The drainage area of the river is placed at 
2,500,000 sq. m., or two-thirds the area of Europe; and 
the main stream and its tributaries are said to afford 
over 25,000 miles of water-way suitable for steam navi- 
gation. Many of the narrow side-channels, so charac- 
teristic of the Amazonian forest-plains, are navigable 
also, either by steamboat or by smaller craft, such as the 
canoes in which the india-rubber and other products 
of the forest are collected ; and it is stated that the total 
length of navigable waters in the system is probably 
not less than 50,000 miles. There is some dispute as to 
whether the islands at the mouth of the river are really 
deltaic ; but it is certain that further inland a great part 



AMAZON. 5 

of the country is insular and river-built, and conse- 
quently of a true delta formation. In the rainy season, 
much of this region is subject to overflow. The main 
channel, at the mouth, is 50 miles wide, exclusive of the 
Para mouth and the island of Joannes. The average 
flow of the river is placed at 2J miles per hour. The 
tides are noticed for about 400 miles up the river. The 
tidal phenomenon called the bore (here known as Poro- 
roca) is very destructive in the main channel of the 
lower river, near its mouth ; and from this phenomenon 
the Indian name of the river (Amassona, 'boat-de- 
stroyer') is said to be derived. There is, however, some 
reason to think that the name was really derived, as 
stated by the older writers, from the female warriors 
seen by early explorers in the valley of this river. The 
name Maranon is derived from a voyager who visited 
the river in 1503 ; Orellana was the name of one who 
sailed on it in 1540. 

The outflowing current of the Amazon in times of 
flood is sometimes perceived at a distance of 200 miles 
from the land. The climate of the river- valley, though 
hot and very damp, is greatly mitigated by its trade- 
winds, which blow from the east with little interruption 
throughout the dry season. These winds at some periods 
of the year become very stormy and even dangerous to 
unskilled boatmen. The river abounds in fish in very 
great variety of species, some of them of great value as 
food-fishes ; and turtles and alligators are plentiful, as 
well as porpoises and manatees. The main river is 
fullest from March to June inclusive, and lowest in 
August and September. The surrounding country is 
very thinly peopled, and many of the native tribes are 



6 AMAZON. 

savages of wild and degraded character. The river is 
open to the commerce of all nations, but trade has been 
impeded by import and export duties. Mention should 
be made of the river Cassiquiare, a stream ordinarily 
navigable, which flows from the Orinoco 180 miles to 
the Rio Negro, the largest northern tributary of the 
Amazon. Para is the principal outlet by sea of the 
commerce of the Amazon Valley. This valley has been 
the field of many unsuccessful attempts at colonisation. 
The immense extent of its forests (almost everywhere 
nearly impenetrable by land on account of the enormous 
growth of lianas, or woody vines of countless species) 
has greatly hindered the progress of agriculture. Many 
useful and some highly valuable timber-trees grow on 
the river. The botany of the country is not very well 
known, many of the trees having flowers only on the 
upper branches, the lower portions being cut off from 
the influence of the light by the dense foliage; hence 
the study of the flowers is not easy. It is one of 
the paradoxes of the region that this forest, the largest 
and densest in the world, imports from North America 
much of its building timber, and some of the steamers 
on the river have found it cheaper to consume English 
coal than to burn the wood which grows so abundautly 
on every side. 

One of the leading pursuits of the lower valley is 
the shipment to Para of india-rubber and Brazil- 
nuts, which are largely collected by the Indians and 
the scattered colonists. But even this employment 
is seldom remunerative. The rubber here found is 
of excellent quality and high price; but the times, 
places, and other conditions of gathering cargoes are 



AMAZON. 7 

extremely uncertain. The river and the forests afford 
to the natives all things which are required to satisfy 
their simple and inartificial needs; consequently no 
systematic industry can flourish except on a relatively 
small scale. The western part of the Amazon Valley 
is, of course, more elevated than the rest of the great 
forest; and between its tributary streams there are 
occasionally found lofty mountain-spurs, which are con- 
nected with the grand range of the Eastern Andes. 
This region affords quinine-yielding barks, coca, cacao, 
sugar, coffee, palm-wax, ipecacuanha, copaiba, sarsapa- 
rilla, vanilla, and other valuable vegetable products, and 
a considerable amount of gold is procured in it. The 
scenery is finer and the productions are more varied than 
in the lower valley ; but the climate is not any healthier, 
nor is the country in general any better settled. 

See Agassiz, A Journey in Brazil (1868) ; H. "W. Bates, A Nat- 
uralist on the River Amazon; ~W\ H. Edwards, Fifteen Thousand 
Miles on the Amazon; H. H. Smith, Brazil, the Amazons, and the 
Coast (1880) ; Mrs Mulhall Between the Amazon and the Andes 
(1882). 






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